1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a method of playing an internet video and a device, and more particularly, to a method of playing a high quality internet video and its related electronic device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
broadband network advances, real time video transmission has become a popular application on the Internet. Web television (TV) is a system for transmitting television signals via a broadband network, for broadcasting programs through the network protocols of the broadband network to transmit digital television services to subscribers. The web TV service suppliers usually provide related services simultaneously, such as Internet connection, IP connecting call, etc. The web TV is a kind of digital TV; hence an ordinary television is required to be equipped with a corresponding digital set-top box for receiving the channels, in order to provide video-on-demand (VOD) services for the users. With consideration of timing, the VOD services can be classified into two categories: “a live broadcasting video”, which the timing of uploading images to the network is simultaneous with an on-going event, such as programs with uncertain lengths (i.e. live broadcasting of a web TV station, internet broadcasting by relay, etc) and “a general internet video”, which have been fully stored in database for downloading after the event, such as video resources with fixed lengths are provided on websites, e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
A user may experience that the conventional TV program is played immediately after the user switches the channel, but in view of a network-based TV, the videos of TV programs are downloaded from the network and then played, which may cause a time lag. Please note that, the playing of the live broadcasting video and the general internet video resources are both limited to bandwidth of the network. For example, when playing the general internet video, the user can determine a desired resolution for the playing. However, the bandwidth may not be sufficient for playing the video with the selected resolution, such that the user needs to wait for the video playing until the video buffer data is enough. In addition, the video buffer data may be used up during the playing, and thereby the video is paused for further data buffering, causing video discontinuity to the user during video watching.
In order to solve the discontinuity of playing the video when the user switches the channel, most of the information provided by current digital TVs are fetched by a digital set-top box in advance or provided by TV stations as uniform images (e.g. poster images, etc.). As to a video program, the preview contents displayed based on this method are not lively and rich enough, such that the user cannot immediately understand the contents to determine whether to keep watching when the preview videos are displayed.